The Land of Gods and Monsters
by Andromeda Rising
Summary: [AU] The Chosen Children never answered the call of destiny. Now, with digimon overrunning the Earth and humans invading the Digital World, two worlds stand on the brink of destruction. Mimi refuses the call again, rejecting her partner digimon, but a chance encounter with Yagami Taichi may change the course of her actions. All Chosen Children must answer the call eventually.


**The Land of Gods and Monsters**

**Disclaimer**: I don't own Digimon. Nor do I own the Lana Del Rey song which inspired the title.

******Author's Note**: This was written as an entry for the random AU competition over at the Digimon Fanfiction Challenges Forum with the prompt of a fairy tale AU. Though Cinderella is the inspiration, that's only the beginning of the story, since I chose to set this in a near future, dystopian world where Earth and the Digital World merged years ago. There will be more action than romance, but as I took a fairy tale for my starting point, that's where we begin.

Any constructive criticism is welcome and more than appreciated. I hope you will enjoy reading this!

* * *

**Chapter One**

Yagami Taichi turned the key in the ignition. The motorcycle growled to life before its rumbling died down to a purr, castling a pool of light that bisected the light of a nearby streetlight. A truck, further down the alley, whirred to life, its lights flaring up to regard him like a pair of eyes in the darkness. He leaned back on his seat, watching it rumble away, and that's when the girl appeared, emerging the shadows.

She was running, and when she saw him, she stopped abruptly, her hair and the hem of her skirt flying around her. The first thing he noticed that she was barefooted and clutching her shoes, a pair of transparent, pointed-toe high heels. They caught the light and glimmered, and he could have sworn they were made of glass.

Her body tensed when she saw him, her eyes widening. She hesitated, her eyes darting from him back to the darkness of the alleyway from where she'd come, looking as if she were debating between staying there or running by him.

He held up his hands to show that he wasn't armed. "You all right?"

She nodded, a long, wavy strand of caramel-colored hair slipping over her shoulder as she turned her head to look behind her, searching for someone-or something. The dress of her pale pink skirt was torn and frayed, and one of the straps had fallen off her shoulder. He didn't realize he was holding his breath, waiting for her answer, until her eyes flit to his again. She stared at him and clutched her shoes and her bag closer to her chest.

"Can you talk?" he asked, then, shoving his hands in his pocket and leaning back on his bike.

"Yes," she said finally, in a small, but defiant, voice, a line working its way between her eyebrows. She held his gaze for a long moment, still clutching onto her shoes as if for dear life and looking like she was about to bolt again. "I..." She shook her head, her long hair swaying, honey hues catching the light. "There was a monster chasing me. I think I lost it."

He picked up his bike helmet and fiddled with it, turning it over in his hands. "D'you need a ride out of here?"

She stared at the motorcycle he idled on, shaking her head again. "I shouldn't..."

"Suit yourself," he said, turning away and revving up the engine again.

"Wait," she said, her voice small. "Don't leave me here! I don't even know where I am."

She dropped her shoes to the ground, then, placing one foot in them and then the other. There was a moment where she hopped on one foot, one hand on the adjacent brick wall steadying her while she hooked her index finger around the lip of her shoes to slip it on, where he thought she's going to fall. He started to rise from his seat, but she finally slid it on and walked towards him. Her footsteps echoed loud in the emptiness of the alleyway. Suddenly he became aware of the noise of the city around him, a faint buzz in the background, cars passing like sighs, and the wails of police cars and ambulances rising and falling. But it didn't sound like there was anyone else there, beyond them, lying in wait in the dark.

She walked towards him, then, still looking at him wearily. She looked like a frightened doe with those big brown eyes.

"Wear this." He held out the helmet like a peace treaty. This was how human relations were negotiated nowadays, like battlegrounds that were a constant test. He had no reason to trust her, and she had no reason to trust him, but against the threat of a monster, they had to call a truce.

"Aren't you supposed to wear the helmet?" she purred into his ear, her mouth closer to his ear than he imagined.

"It's all yours, princess."

She cast him a look but slid it on anyway. It was far too big for her head and he had to adjust it for her, and finally, she smiled, the smile bubbling into laughter as he fiddled with it, not quite able to manipulate it the way he wanted to. He grinned at her. She was probably some scared kid, faraway from home and frightened by an overly-friendly digimon. Most of them were harmless, in his experience, but then again, maybe the one she'd encountered had been vicious.

Then again, she didn't look much younger than him. Maybe she listened a little too closely to the six o'clock news.

"Where are we going?" she spoke up, suddenly, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"I can take you home," he said. "Or... well, I'm going to see a friend's show, but you probably wouldn't want to come."

"Oh, yeah?" she said, raising her eyebrows, and he couldn't help but laugh a her. She tried to look challenging, but all she looked like was comical with the helmet on her head.

When she slid delicately into the seat behind him and wound her arms tight around him, he couldn't help but compare them to the tan complexion of his own arms. Her skin seemed to shine with an iridescence and pallor not unlike that of the moon. Blue veins stood out starkly against the white, and he thought of a time when that signified nobility. She looked like a rich kid, too.

Taichi pressed on the gas, then, and they shot through the alleyway and onto the road, hurtling into the darkness of the night. At the speed they were going, everything seemed to be a blur of light and darkness.

He expected her to scream, or at lest, when they were stopped at a red light, to tell him to _slow down _like Hikari did every time he gave her a ride to school, but she just wrapped her arms tighter around him.

He turned off the main road and onto a side street. Here the streets crowded closer together, narrowing down, and the buildings seemed to spill onto the road. After parking his motorcycle and helping her to climb off, he couldn't help but think that she looked out of place here, like a princess descended into the sewers of the city, dressed in a pale pink babydoll dress while mostly everyone was in jeans. The bar Yamato was playing at was a dive bar that was packed between two others, masses of people converging outside, smoke and laughter rising from them. Neither of them were the drinking age, yet, but Taichi had a feeling that the people who'd booked the Teenage Wolves probably didn't care, and neither would the bartenders.

Taichi wanted to put his arm around the girls' small shoulders, to bring her closer to him and shield her from the others' prying eyes. But he'd only just met her-he didn't even know her name. He didn't even know what she was doing in that alleyway, barefooted and claiming a monster was chasing her. Then again, that wasn't out of the ordinary. But he kept his distance, shouldering through the throng of people outside the venue, a wall of bodies and smoke. He kept looking back to make sure she's was there, that she was following him, that she hasn't disappeared. But she didn't look scared, not anymore. Her eyes seemed to light up as she took in the glowing neon sign that hung above them.

When they finally were inside, Taichi barely had the time to look for Yamato, on the stage at the other end of the room, before someone called his name. He turned, looking for the source of the voice, and a grin broke out across his face at the sight of Takenouchi Sora. She smiled, waving, but her smile fell a little as she approached them.

"Hi. You're late." She looked at Taichi and the girl, glued to his side, looking around the venue in wonder. "I have a table near the back, but I think we might just leave it to go to the front..." She tilted her head, her ruby eyes boring into his, mouthing quietly: _Who's that?_

He could read her lips without trouble; after all, they've only known each other since they were children. He waved it off and mouthed back, _Beer. _Sora acquiesced with a nod, though not without narrowing her eyes at him and from the gleam in them he could tell she was going to get the truth out of him sooner or later.

Sora left them alone, then, near the bar, waiting to be served.

"So..." Taichi said, amused at her expression. "You ever been to a place like this?"

She shook her head, smiling shyly and tucking a strand of honey-colored hair behind her ear. "No..." She trailing off, biting her lip, and he wondered just who this mysterious girl was and where she was from. "I don't think my parents would ever allow it."

He raised his eyebrows, then. "What do you want to drink?"

He expected her to say a martini, or wine, or some other drink that girls usually ordered. But she surprised him by saying, a bit mischievously, "I don't suppose you'd have champagne."

He laughed. "I don't know, should we ask the bartender?"

She scanned the menu hanging on the wall behind the bar. "Beer, then?"

He leaned his elbows on the bar. "What kind?"

Her eyebrows knit together, and he said to the bartender, "Two blond beers of whatever you have." He didn't bother with names. They probably scraped the beer off the sidewalks, anyway.

When they finally got to the table with their beers in hand, Sora was there, by herself, with a beer and another empty glass sitting next to it.

"Someone else here?" Taichi asked, motioning to the empty glass with his full one.

"No," Sora said. "I was just getting lonely waiting for you."

"Yeah, that or you're getting drunk enough to finally confess-"

"Shove it, Yagami," Sora said, though heat crept into her cheeks. She looked down, and he grinned wickedly. "They're playing... well."

"Yeah," Taichi said, glancing at it, though he was distracted.

"I'm Sora." Sora extended her hand to the girl, who shook her hand without introducing herself. "Nice to meet you."

Neither of them said anything, for a moment. The defeaning sound of the music squashed all of Taichi's thoughts for a moment before Sora spoke up again.

"So, have you heart about the attack in Shibuya today?"

Taichi shook his head, and said, "We're in Shibuya."

"I didn't think you would, but I figured since it was so close you might've. It was only a few hours ago."

"How am I supposed to keep up with the news?" Taichi said, taking a long swig of beer. "There've been so many attacks lately I can't keep them straight."

Sora shook her head. "It's just getting worse and worse, isn't it?" she said, her voice almost drowned out by the sound blaring from the speakers.

"Hey, cheer up," he says, breaking out into a grin. "We're here to have fun, not mope around about how the world's going to end."

"We should go dance, then," Sora said, eyeing the band.

"This doesn't exactly strike me as dancing music," Taichi says, leaning back in his chair, and he ignored the look she shot him.

"I saw the attack," the girl said, suddenly speaking up. Taichi noticed that the reason she'd been silent was because she was playing around on her cell phone, and she placed it, face-down, on the table. "I'd just stepped outside of work and the whole sky seemed to light up in fire."

"Did you see who caused it?" Sora said, though something strained in her voice made Taichi think it was more _what _that caused it than who.

The girl shook her head. "I don't know."

"Hey, come on," Taichi said, beginning to frown. "Enough serious talk."

Sora rolled her eyes, then. "Don't be so insensitive." She rose from her seat, grabbing her beer. "I'm going to go cheer Yamato on."

"Hey, listen, I'm sorry," Taichi says, rubbing his neck. He looked at Sora, weaving through the crowd of people to get to the front, and then back at the girl. She looked so lost and vulnerable, really more out of place than he'd thought.

"It was scary," she said, her eyes still intent on her drink. "Sometimes, I really do think the world is going to end."

That was when he made the connection between finding her in that alleyway and the attack she claimed she'd seen. He didn't know how to make her feel better, so he said, "I don't think the world's gonna end, though."

"What makes you say that?" Her eyes flickered up to him, and in them, he thought he might have seen hope.

He shrugged, then. "Just a feeling. Besides, we're still here, aren't we?"

She gave him a small, timid smile, then, and looked over at the stage. He looked, too. Yamato's band was clustered on the small stage, and he was at the forefront, seated on a bar stood, strumming his guitar. His band could smoothly transition from a harder rock song to a soft, slow and sentimental melody. That was the kind of music they were playing, Yamato's eyes closed, his fingers gently strumming the guitar, as he sang a quiet love song into microphone.

"So, you never did tell me your name," Taichi says, turning back to the girl.

"We should go dance," she said.

He leaned towards her, grumbling, "This isn't the kind of stuff you dance to."

The girl turned, considering. Taichi looked, too, and saw a few couples slow dancing. He had to resist the strong urge to roll his eyes.

"Who does he write those songs for?"

"Wha-who? Oh." Taichi looked at Yamato, and then he leaned in close to the girl. "Don't tell him I told you this, but I think that he writes them for Sora."

She leaned in, too, sharing that conspiring grin. "Your friend?"

"Yeah."

"How do you know?"

He shrugged, glancing at Sora. "Just a feeling."

She turned, too, observing over her shoulder. "She looks like she likes him, too."

"Yeah, maybe. Sora's harder to read." He didn't know why he was telling her this, and he imagined Yamato's fist colliding with his face.

"Let's go dance." She put a hand on his wrist, shaking it.

"I don't really want to dance."

"Why not?" she said, leaning back and pouting. Then, she switched her tactics, leaning in close again. "Everyone looks silly when they dance."

He considered. The song was more less melodramatic and probably easier to dance to.

"Nah," he said, still not looking at her.

"Fine, then." Her hand slid off his wrist and she stood. "I'll find someone else to dance with."

He grumbled under his breath as he stood. "Lead the way."

"That's what I thought." She grabbed his hand to pull him into the crowd and, right before they entered the mass, stood up on his tiptoe to whisper close to his ear, so close that her lips tickled his earlobe, "And don't call me princess."

This time, he let her lead him. She dragged him in the general direction of Sora and, once they'd reached her side, the two girls smiled at each other. He thought they looked a bit menacing, and he just stood there, staring at them and not wanting to dance a bit. Yamato would probably laugh at him for ages. He just sort of stood there as the girl danced with Sora, entranced by the way she moved her hips rhythmically to the music, lifting her hands in the air, but when she caught his eye he just looked away, feigning interest in the music. He couldn't even tell what song Yamato's band was playing because the music was blaring so loudly from a speaker located a few feet from them.

When the music died down and Yamato put his guitar down, everyone in the room cheered. The girls cheered the loudest, Yamato gave a wave and walked off the stage. Taichi went to intercept him, but a crowd of girls moved faster than him, like a pack of hungry moving as one to hone in on the prey.

"Uhh... I'm kind of with someone," he heard Yamato say as Taichi approached, elbowing past a couple.

"Excuse me," Taichi said, stuck behind two girls. One of them moved aside, mumbling an apology, but the other didn't move-she leaned in closer to Yamato.

"Will you sign my shirt?" she said, holding out a marker for him. "I'm your _biggest_ fan!"

Yamato caught his eye, then, giving him a minute shake of the head, but he did as the girl asked, signing the back of her shirt with a flourish. The crowd of girls moved away, then, giggling and laughing amongst each other. That's when Yamato rolled his eyes, dramatically.

"Hey, it's all part of the job," Taichi said, eyebrows raised. "You signed up for it."

Yamato didn't even humor him. "Where's Sora?"

"Over there." He pointed to where she was, standing front and center near the stage.

Yamato looked over at Sora, dancing with the other girl. "Who's she with?"

"No idea. I picked her up on the way here."

Yamato gave him a look, but he didn't ask. "I need something to drink."

When they got more beer and the girls were still dancing at the front, now to a more pop-punk sounding group lead by a girl flanked by two guys, Taichi said, "Bottoms up, dude. I don't think we're getting out of this one."

They chugged their beers before joining the girls. Sora and Yamato leaned in close to talk, Sora stilling, but the girl was still dancing, and she twirled towards him. He caught her by her forearms, steadying her.

"Whoa there," he said, though he, himself, was not all that steady.

He'd had enough, by that point, that he let her pull her towards him into a dance. Her energy seemed endless, moving her body fluidly in time with music. He barely kept up with her, feeling foolish and probably looking it.

"I have two left feet," he said when she grabbed his hands, pulling her towards him.

"It doesn't matter." She laughed and let go of his hands, mimicking his ridiculous movements before doing a bad version of the robot, probably to make him feel better about his awful moves. They both dissolved into laughter, and they probably looked insane, but he didn't care. Maybe it was easier to forgot about their troubles when they were here, dancing as if there would be the night was all they had and there would be no tomorrow.

But all nights had to come to an end. After a song wound down, she stopped dancing pulled her phone out of her purse, saying quietly, "It's midnight."

"What's up?" he leaned towards her, but she took a step back.

"I have to go..." She stashed her phone away in her purse and slipped through the crowd of people before he could ask. He followed her, and when she broke through the mass of people, she kicked up one foot and took off her shoe, and then the other. He didn't comment on the eccentricity of her taking off her shoes in random times and places-he wouldn't do it, not here where the floor was sticky with alcohol.

"Wait... Don't go yet."

"I have to," she said, turning towards the door.

"Can I have your number?"

She smiled tightly, looking at him over her shoulder. "I can't." She turned again.

"Your name?"

"I have to go..." Someone bumped his shoulder into her, roughly, and she stumbled back, but she just wove around him and out the door, disappearing into the people that had amassed outside.

Taichi stared after her. He turned to join Yamato and Sora again, but a glimmer caught his eye-she'd dropped her shoe. Crouching down, he picked it up swiftly before someone could step on it.

It really was made of glass. He stared at it in a daze, wondering how a glass slipped could support the weight of a girl. It must have been expensive, crafted from the strongest glass.

Well. Perhaps this was an excuse to see her again.

* * *

Taichi heard Hikari before he saw her, the door creaking on its hinges before she shut it quietly, her keys clinking as she deposited them on the tray next to the door. He turned the volume of the TV down, though he realized that he hasn't really been paying much attention to the moving images on the screen. His mind was elsewhere.

"Hey, Hikari."

She gave him a placid smile as she entered the living room, but he knew her too well. She looked weary and tired and there seemed to be a permanent frown etched into her forehead. She put her schoolbag down next to the couch he lounged on with a heavy thud-it looks like the zippers were going to burst from the amount of textbooks shoved in the bag, their corners nearly poking holes into the canvas.

"What did you do today?" she asked, settling down beside him.

"Nothing." He grabbed the TV remote before she could grab it.

"And what did you do last night? I didn't see you this morning."

"Yamato played a set. And..." He toyed with the idea of not telling her, but she knew him better than anyone, better even than Sora and Yamato, and he could never lie to her. He stared at the TV. "And I met a girl."

"That's great. Did you get her number?"

"No."

Hikari giggled, then, and Tai looked at her. Finally, the frown was gone, and he only saw mirth in her eyes. He felt something in him lightening at the sight of her smiling. It seemed to him like she didn't smile enough anymore, like she was letting things wear her down, and he didn't know how to protect her anymore.

She looked at the TV, then, breaking eye contact. "Since when do you watch the news?"

"Since Sora told me to," he said, eliciting another laugh from his sister. He fiddled with the TV remote, staring at the screen. Though this station was sensationalist at best, with news anchors that ran the gamut from hysterical to uneducated-that's what their father had said over dinner once, as Hikari was tuning into the news. To its credit, though, it was the most entertaining news channel.

The explosion from yesterday keeps playing over and over in what they emphasized was a _special report _that, when he checked the schedule, has been replaying all day until 6:00 PM when a new newscast of today's events would play.

"Kari," Taichi said, then, his voice low. "Do you think the world is going to end?"

She shook her head. "No. My history teacher was talking about this today, actually. She said that we'll get out of it somehow. We always triumph."

"There's always been a winning side and a losing side, but wars have always been fought between humans," Taichi said. "What if humans are on the losing side?"

"I didn't know you paid attention in history class," Hikari said, teasing, and he swiped the TV remote out of her hand in revenge. She shrugged, then, letting her narrow shoulders fall. "I guess a human-monster war is unprecedented."

"You're telling me," he grumbled, sinking lower into the couch.

They sat in silence, watching the images replay on the screen with the volume so low they could hardly hear what was being said, transfixed by the images. Then, the commercials come on, and Hikari sprang up, making her way towards the kitchen. "Is there anything to eat?"

"If I were you I wouldn't touch the tofu that mom made last night," Taichi said without even looking up.

"Oh," Hikari said, wrinkling her nose replacing a container back in its place in the fridge.

She returned with salted edamame beans in a bowl. As she took the cling-wrap off, he said, "I wouldn't try those, either. It's some new recipe that mom tried out."

"How can you ruin edamame beans?" she said.

He shook his head and looked back at the TV. That's when _she _danced across the TV screen, like she'd emerged from his imagination and into the television. He stared at it for few moments before sitting up and saying, "That's her."

"Who?" Hikari says, her forehead screwed up. She looked at the TV screen.

"The girl I met last night."

"No way." Hikari stared at the screen. "That's Tachikawa Mimi."

"Who?"

"She's a model." Hikari took a bite of the beans, and waving her spoon in the air, said, "Where would you even have met her?"

"Oh." He slumped against the couch, sinking back into it, but he was sure that it was her. He knew it was. But he didn't know how to explain himself; the story of how they met, when he thought about it, was absurd and nonsensical. He didn't even know where to begin. Hikari looked expectant, but then, chewing on the beans, her face screwed up.

"What's wrong?" Taichi said.

"Spicy..." she said, sticking her tongue out before getting up, placing the bowl of beans back on the table, running back towards the kitchen.

Taichi stared at the screen. _Tachikawa Mimi. _No wonder she hadn't even told him her name. They'd probably never see each other again, and maybe it was better that way. He hadn't been so wrong when he thought she'd looked like a princess descended into the depths of an underworld she didn't belong in. They were from entirely different worlds.

* * *

"Hi, Mr. Takenouchi!" Tachikawa Mimi waved at the man as she passed by his office, stopping. "Is Koushiro in?"

The man gave a start, looking from his papers to the girl, before a genuine smile broke out across his features. "He should be."

"Perfect."

She walked towards his door and knocked firmly. There was a pause, and she wondered if he wasn't in there or if he was just ignoring her. It wasn't uncommon for him to just ignore people and keep on working, or to not even notice at all. She knocked again, more aggressively, and when there was no answer she turned the knob and peeked in.

Izumi Koushiro stood quickly when she entered, and when he saw her, his dropped back into his seat. "Oh. Mimi. It's just you." He looked irritated, then, his eyebrows knitting together. It was funny to see him in a suit, still, no matter how many times she'd seen him in one; he'd caught up to her in height now and surpassed her by a few inches, but he still looked too small in that ill-fitting suit. One day she'd have to drag him to have one tailored to his frame, because she suspected that his suit belonged to his father.

"Who were you expecting?" She closed the door behind her, and then turned on her heel. "Nice greeting, by the way."

"I told you to use the password."

"Kou, Kou," she said, her voice dispirited. That wasn't the password, it was the nickname that she knew he hated.

She dragged a chair over to sit right next to him, throwing her purse down beside her. She knew better than to throw it on the stack of papers littering his desk-she did once, and he was so flustered from the disorder that she had caused that she never did it again. She still didn't understand, because there had been absolutely no organization to his files, but apparently there was order in his disorder.

He went right back to working, and she sighed to get his attention.

"What's up?" he said, without pausing to look up from his typing.

"Can you please stop working for a second?"

His fingers slowed over the keys, and he turned towards her. He still looked slightly irritated, but she pressed on.

"This is serious."

Finally, he leaned back in his chair. "Do you have a math test tomorrow, by any chance?"

"A digimon followed me yesterday," she said.

His eyes ran up and down her quickly. "Are you-" He stopped. "What happened?"

"I'm fine. It was harmless. But it scared me..." She shook her head, looking down at her lap. "I'm sorry for interrupting your work. I know you have better things to do than to listen to me, but-well, I guess what I'm trying to say is hurry. I don't think we have much time left."

* * *

_During the explosion that had lit the sky like thousands of fireworks, she had been knocked to the ground by someone who had shoved by her, running the other way, and she'd teetered on her heels and fallen. She looked up to see a dragon-a monster-she refused to call them "digimon," still-swooping from the skies down towards her, and she felt terror course through her. This was it, this was the end. She shielded her eyes by throwing an arm over her eyes, but the darkness never came._

"_Mimi!"_

_She'd peeked an eye open and pushed herself up. Who had called her name? She stood, then, and looked around. The area was deserted; all the pedestrians had run the other way and she could see police in the distance, but no one else._

"_Mimi!"_

_She looked around. A few feet away from her, there stood a little monster. It looked like an overgrown bulb with feet and little red eyes that stared at her. Her eyes widened and she took a step back. She'd seen this monster before-it had followed her, once._

"_Leave me alone," she said, starting to walk the other way. She hoped she would lose it fast; she was here for a go-see and she didn't know the area very well._

_The little monster followed her for several blocks. She ignored it, since digimon walked the Earth same as humans now, whether they were partnered up or not. Their rights had years ago been instated as autonomous, sentient creatures, and they were allowed to roam freely among humans, whether they were partnered up or not._

_Things were changing with the wave of recent terrorist attacks, but since no one was identified as the culprit, no one was yet to blame. This was normal. Not unusual. Or at least, it should have felt this way by now._

_But too much had gone wrong._

_So she ignored it, until when she turned after stopping for a red light and she saw it there, standing right behind her, staring up at her. She pulled on the hem of her skirt and averted her eyes, keeping them on the red light, waiting for it to turn. It took a small eternity, and then she was crossing the street, taking longer strides and pumping her legs. She may have been in pumps, but she had long ago learned to speedwalk in them, even when weaving in and out of Tokyo traffic. Her heart pounded in her ears._

_When she turned down an avenue and she glanced over her shoulder, she saw it was still following. She glanced at her phone and threw over her shoulder, "Why are you following me?"_

_She should be used to this by now. Digimon followed humans all the time. She couldn't count on her hand the amount of times digimon had asked her out on _dates _and each time she had recoiled, refusing to humor them. But this one just stared up at her with wide, shining red eyes and a garish smile stretching across its face._

"_I want to be your partner, Mimi!" Its voice was small and pathetic. She almost felt sorry for it. It was so small, only as big as one of her American Girl dolls._

"_How do you know my name?"_

"_I've been waiting for you my whole life!"_

_At that, she slipped off her shoes, taking them in her hands, and she started to run. She turned down the first dark alleyway she saw and continued to run. Until she'd run into him_.

* * *

"We're working on it, Mimi," Koushiro said, eyeing the girl up and down. Something in him wanted to reach out, to close his hand around her trembling hands; that's what he should have done, what anyone would have done. But he was not just anyone, and the distance between them was stretched too wide. "Around the clock, everywhere in the world. We closed the main gates, but that's not stopping anyone. It's not easy. We close one portal, and ten more pop up."

"Oh." She looked up at him, then, her eyes sparkling. Something in him dropped. _Don't cry. Don't cry, Mimi._

"The military's taking every measure to make sure that they don't cross over, and-" He stopped. She wasn't listening to him babble about how they were going to fix this. He didn't even know-it wasn't like he was enlisted in the military, fighting on the front lines, on the tenuous border between this world and the next. He was behind his computer screen, fighting other battles, manipulating data to mitigate the damage that humanity had done by opening its borders and allowing a world of monsters to spill into this one without thinking of the repercussion.

"Why did this have to happen?" she said, her voice low, and his heart ached to hear the heartbreak in her voice.

It was strange; she was such an innocent in a world full of people with hearts corrupt by greed. Sometimes, she annoyed the hell out of him, barging into his office at any hour and with no warning, making him look completely unprofessional to his colleagues. They were all at least middle-aged, and tenured; he'd skipped high school and gone straight to university, acquiring a job with the help of Mr. Takenouchi within months of his graduation, but because they'd been in the same class since kindergarten Mimi still came to him with piles of physics and chemistry homework. Sometimes, she just came with incessant chatter and stories that she needed to share with _someone, _though he didn't understand why he was that someone, demanding he drop his work to pay his full and undivided attention to her.

He remembered, then, that he had been with her the day that the digital monsters had invaded and overrun the earth. It had been one of the only times in his memory that he'd been brave. Two small digimon had followed them on their way home and she'd been scared; he had fought them off, telling them to go back to where they'd come from. He grabbed her hand and sprinted-she was slowed than him, even though she was a full head taller and she had longer legs, but he was on the soccer team. He didn't think she'd ever let go of that memory, even if things were changed between them now.

"If there's anything that history teaches us, it's that human greed is endless," he said dispassionately, as if he were reciting lines from a textbook. And sometimes, he felt the seeds of that greed, growing slowly in his heart. The power that knowledge gained-sometimes, he wasn't sure how to control it. And that scared him.

But he would never tell her that.

It was she that reached out, her hand clasping over his. He froze, becoming stiff under her touch. He didn't move a muscle in his hand, but a muscle in his jaw twitched. She still didn't look at him.

Finally, she stood. He found that he regretted when her hand left his, still feeling her touch, and that in her absence, the room seemed to grow infinitely smaller.

Moments later, a knock sounded at the door.

He frowned at it, wondering if it was Mimi, but when the door opened to reveal an old man in an indigo trench coat, he sat back down in surprise, his mouth halfway open to say something, anything. He stared at the man, whose hair and moustache were white as snow, and whose eyes-though blue and watery-twinkled with merriment.

"Hello, Izumi Koushiro. My name is Gennai."


End file.
